


Take the Load Off

by C0ppelia



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Fluff, IkeSoren Week 2021, M/M, Short & Sweet, just the slightest hint of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 10:55:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28562379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/C0ppelia/pseuds/C0ppelia
Summary: When Soren feels the weight of his own expectations, Ike tells him what he's really worth.Ikesoren week 2021Day 2: Trust
Relationships: Ike/Senerio | Soren
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24
Collections: IkeSoren Week 2021





	Take the Load Off

**Author's Note:**

> Another project took up most of my December, but I still wanted to do *something* for Ike/Soren week. I want to do something more developed with this theme later, but for now, enjoy this short little moment!

Soren brushed straw off his ankle and stared at the soft pool of lamp light on the floorboards. The farmers had offered their own homes to him and Ike, but neither of them minded spending the night in the barn. Soren preferred it.

Even now, in dry clothes and sitting on warm straw, he still mulled over his sloppy mistakes in the swamp and ground his back teeth. A quick jaunt to track down some horse thieves plaguing the farmers shouldn’t have gone that badly. He must have missed something, some detail the hapless farmers forgot to tell him. Or that he’d overlooked, maybe. Anything to warn him that they weren’t following ordinary thieves but a fledgling warlord’s gang, with money enough for a fortress and the sophistication to lure he and Ike deep into the swamp.

“You okay, Soren? You’re even quieter than usual.”

He blinked and looked up at Ike, rubbing the last of the rank, muddy swamp water out of his hair with a cotton towel. Soren made sure the heaviness in his chest didn’t change his voice.

“It’s nothing. I rushed us into the swamp without thinking, and I should’ve done better. I’m sorry.”

Ike tossed the towel over a beam and stretched his shoulders. Soren glanced over the arms—and thought of the legs, taut as wood, under a pair of dry trousers—that had pulled him along as they slogged through thigh-high water and pushed him over a fallen, rotting tree trunk and almost certainly saved him from the five thieves chasing them. Ike shifted from one foot to the other, still rotating his upper arms. But he didn’t feel stiff; he just needed to move. Soren had got used to it years ago.

“What d’you mean? You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. You got us back out just fine.”

They’d survived because Ike was as quick as he was strong, and had fought through three of the men on his own to clear another sprint back to dry ground, out of the swamp. Unless his tactics could keep them both safe, he was nothing but a burden to Ike.

“I shouldn’t have had us just rush right in. We should’ve sent word back to the rest of the Mercenaries that we needed backup.”

“C’mon, neither of us had any way of knowing what was really out there. And that barley farmer, she already sent her son back to the fort. He’ll get there fast on a pegasus, and we’ll have everyone out here soon enough.”

“I didn’t even do much to get us out.”

He shrugged, smiling a little. “Sure ya did. I asked if I’d be able to fight through the first three of ‘em, and you said I would, and you backed me up by blasting those other two.”

He paced around, taking a few steps to the barn window and leaning over to peer out into the warm night. If having to shield Soren over and over bothered him, he wasn’t going to show it.

Soren blinked again and stared at the floor. Why did Ike do this for him? What did he ever get from Soren? He could be clever and calm, but he didn’t have anything else to give him.

He’d forgotten that Ike had asked him if he could fight through. It hadn’t made any sense to him at the time either, soaked and muddy and gasping to catch his breath. The gang hadn’t been ordinary thieves, but none of the five had seemed like professional soldiers.

“Hey, Ike...why _did_ you ask me if I thought you could fight your way out?”

Ike turned his head back and paused. Soren couldn’t read his face. Was he embarrassed? Surprised? He straightened, glancing down at the floor, and rubbed the side of his neck.

“Well...I suppose I wanted to make sure I could.”

“But why ask me?”

Ike stepped away from the window, focusing on the straw in front of him. He spoke slowly, as if he had to consider every word.

“Because if _you_ think I can, then it’s gotta be true.”

Soren spoke quietly. “You...you needed me to say it to believe it?”

“Yeah. Sometimes...a lot of the time, I need to hear it from you.”

“...why?”

Ike looked at him, a glint in his eye, his lips tilting in a slight smile. His voice became lighter, his speech faster.

“Because you’re the smartest person I’ve ever met. And you’re the most practical. You don’t do anything unless it’s actually going to work, and if someone else’s idea isn’t good, you tell them.”

He started to pace again, letting his arms swing free.

“So if you think I’m capable of something...of anything...then I must be.”

Soren couldn’t move. Was it fear building up in his chest?

“H-how long have you felt like that?”

“Since...always, probably. Almost since we met.”

Ike swallowed, setting his jaw for a moment and gazing back at the floor.

“When my father died, no one thought I could lead the Mercenaries. Maybe they did, looking back, I know most everyone went along with it...but at the beginning it _felt_ like even Mist and Titania wished I was really my father. It felt like that weight would crush me.”

He looked back at Soren.

“But _you_ never acted that way. The smartest one, the one who won’t ever go along just to spare someone’s feelings...you never, never doubted me. I’d make a decision and spend all night worrying about it, I’d think I’d have to give up. But if you weren’t pushing back against me, if you were going along with everything I said...maybe I really did know what I was doing.”

Ike shifted again, almost bouncing, his body loose.

“It happens all the time. I start to get anxious about something, and I look at you, and you have faith in me, and I feel better.”

Soren still didn’t allow himself to believe it.

“Why haven’t you ever said anything before?”

“I guess I never felt like I had to. You’re always seem so sure, it woulda been silly to ask.”

Soren felt weightless. A warm bubble was swelling in his chest and flowing all through his body, flooding his brain. He just stared up at Ike.

“I…”

Ike’s smile broadened. He tilted his head, and even in the weak light from the lamp, his face started to glow. He took a step closer. He knelt down and pulled himself into the straw, reclining next to Soren, close enough for Soren to feel his body heat.

“Maybe I shoulda said something earlier, if you’re gonna get a look like _that_ on your face…”


End file.
